It was most generous of the Naypyitaw government to sanction the Shan-Kayah meeting in Lashio, 20-22 March.

U Aung Min, Vice Chairman of the Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC), ministers and officials from his Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) also deserve sincere appreciation both for gracing it with their presence and sharing their thoughts with the participants.

The meeting, like the 1946 Panglong, the forerunner of the more historic1947 Panglong, didn’t really have a real agenda, apart from reminding the participants presentations must be aimed at one central theme: Trustbuilding for Peace, which incidentally was the title of the gathering.

Out of it emerged three schools of thought:

• On U Aung Min’s side, the suggestion was for the non-Burmans to take everything they could get from the 2008 constitution and negotiate for what they couldn’t
• On the other hand, the majority of the participating political parties and armed movements were calling for its amendment
• But among them were not a few who thought amending the charter was a waste of time and resources and had opted for a new charter, notably Shan State Progress Party (SSPP), Inn National Development Party (INDP), Karenni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF), Kayan New Land Party (KNLP) and Lawyers Network

Interestingly, their calls coincided with the Union Assembly’s resolution to form constitutional review committees/commissions in the upcoming June session.

The sensible thing therefore is to hold public consultations (both state/region and union levels) to find out what the people really want both before and after the review committees/commissions are formed.

Burma of course already has had experience with the constitutional amendment process during the 1960-62 period, which ended with the coup by the military that has since been the real arbiter of the country’s problems.

After receiving the green light from the then elected government of U Nu, the Shans held meetings among themselves on how to go about the amendment process. They later called an all Shan State meeting to form a steering committee for the constitutional review.

Then, together with Kayah, an interstates convention was called in June 1961, when the Federal Bill, as it was known, was submitted to and approved by the convention.

All these went well until a seminar was called by the U Nu Government to discuss the bill (outside the parliament). It was then that the military took matters into it owns hands. Hopefully, this time, all those concerned: the people, the government, the military and the international community will see to it that piece of history does not repeat itself.